Winemaker to Watch: Jennifer Williams of Spottswoode

Jon Bonné, Chronicle Wine Editor

Published 4:00 am, Friday, December 7, 2007

Photo: Photo By Craig Lee

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Photo for story on this year's Winemaker of the Year and the five Winemakers to Watch. This is Jennifer Williams of Spottswoode Estate Vineyard and Winery in St. Helena. Jennifer is a Winemaker to Watch.
on 11/27/07 in St. Helena. photo by Craig Lee / The Chronicle MANDATORY CREDIT FOR PHOTOG AND SF CHRONICLE/NO SALES-MAGS OUT less

WINEMAKER07_575_cl.JPG
Photo for story on this year's Winemaker of the Year and the five Winemakers to Watch. This is Jennifer Williams of Spottswoode Estate Vineyard and Winery in St. Helena. Jennifer is a ... more

Photo: Photo By Craig Lee

Winemaker to Watch: Jennifer Williams of Spottswoode

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Jennifer Williams just wanted to work for a small estate winery, an escape from the large-scale corporate winegrowing she had cut her teeth on. She found a tiny family-owned St. Helena property.

It happened to be Spottswoode, home to one of Napa Valley's most prized, ageworthy Cabernets and the haunt of several winemaking superstars. Tony Soter, Rosemary Cakebread and Pam Starr all hung their hats at Mary Novak's historic tree-shaded St. Helena estate. Now Williams, 31, promoted to winemaker starting with last year's vintage, has the mantle.

No pressure there. "I'm keeping my fingers crossed that I can hang with these guys," she says.

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Williams' time at Spottswoode began in the organic vineyard directly behind the Novak family's Victorian mansion. The winery relies on its own 40 acres for almost all its wine, so every nuance in every row affects the final blend. In 2002, Williams was hired as a harvest intern, splitting time between Spottswoode and Araujo. The following year, she joined full time, working under vineyard guru David Abreu in the fields and Cakebread in the winery. Then the Novaks decided to start managing their own vineyards and in 2004, Williams was named vineyard manager.

In the meantime, Cakebread had started to think about handing off her daily duties. She decided to serve as a mentor to the new arrival, ensuring a seamless transition. Two years later, Williams took the winemaker slot in time to oversee the 2006 harvest. "There was trust developed between her and Rosemary and me," says Beth Novak Milliken, Spottswoode's president and one of two daughters who work with Mary Novak at the winery. (Cakebread remains as a consultant.)

Williams' path started on the other end of the state, growing up in Valley Center outside San Diego, where she was captivated by the apples and persimmons growing on her family's 1-acre property. Hers is an almost uncanny series of career choices, far from the standard UC Davis track: She went to California Polytechnic State University San Luis Obispo, hoping to be a large-animal veterinarian. Botany and grapegrowing caught her attention, and in the summer of 1995, she came north to St. Helena to work at Beaulieu Vineyard, followed by a stint in grower relations for huge Meridian Vineyards in Paso Robles. But Cal Poly San Luis Obispo offered no wine programs, so Williams chose fruit science. "It was as close as I could get," she says.

After graduation in 1999, she wandered north again, taking an enologist job at Napa's Trefethen Family Vineyards and later working in the Rioja region of Spain. By that point, she had decided that she wanted to land at a family estate, preferably an organic one. Along came Spottswoode.

Every winemaker insists the vineyard is their focus, but Spottswoode is located at downtown St. Helena's back door in the midst of a residential neighborhood, one reason why Soter took it organic in 1985. So fastidious vineyard care is a serious matter, which is why Williams' experience in the fields was crucial in preparing for her current job. With its flagship Cabernet Sauvignon coming entirely from the family's plot, knowing every inch is simply a matter of his responsibility. "Something I tell people all the time is that Mary Novak walks that vineyard every day, no joke," Williams says.

The Novaks have entrusted their jewel to a young, promising winemaker before: Soter was about the same age as Williams when he took over. But that was 25 years ago, when the winery was new. Now there's a style and a legacy to protect. Williams has made a few small tweaks, working with more native yeast fermentation, but also working from the realization that part of her job is stewardship of Spottswoode's legacy.

"They are big shoes to fill, and I think Jennifer has done so extremely well," Milliken says. "It's not like there's margin for error."

To cap off the year, Williams married Mark Porembski, a winemaker at Anomaly Vineyards, in June. They mostly drink European wines at home, unlike many young Napa winemakers, and spent their precious few moments together during harvest sharing takeout and working on their own label, Zeitgeist Cellars. "We talk about wine a lot," Williams says. "That's been a learning experience, having a new marriage and learning to make wine together."

But it's paying off. The final Cabernet blend won't be made until next summer, but a tasting of 2006 barrel samples shows Williams finessing the transition, with the new wine preserving the up-front modern trappings of dense black fruit draped atop a massive, ripe structure that mark Spottswoode's recent vintages.

"I look for ageworthiness, and not the ageworthiness that means you can't drink it for five years," she says. "I look for a wine that develops in the glass and develops in the bottle. And I think that's the true meaning of complexity."